WhatsApp has been the most chosen messaging platform in India, largely for two reasons, first – it’s end-to-end encryption model, and second - it’s a free app with no advertisements. But, the company’s recent decision to share the users information and data with their parent company Facebook and other third-parties can be seen in outright conflict with their earlier policy stand that ‘Respect for your privacy is coded into our DNA’. They fail to understand, that why would any user consent to share his chat and other critical information with any third party, to his detriment. It has become even more alarming, since now the platform has introduced an in-app payment option as well, which means giving our banking and financial information to WhatsApp, with a rider that it can also be shared with third parties.
Is this in contravention of any of the global consumer privacy and data policy regulations?
Triggering from the 2018 Cambridge Analytica episode to Facebook’s recent Privacy Tracking Lawsuit in the United Sates, it can be deduced that the company has used the user data towards unauthorized and shady activities. In this era of information age, Facebook owns four of the most downloaded apps of the decade, i.e. – Facebook’s own app, Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram. Any steps towards compromising with the user data (of which, recent WhatsApp privacy policy update is a leading example) will lead to Facebook abusing it’s dominant position. Very recently, an anti-trust case has been opened up against Facebook for abusing its dominance in the digital marketplace and engaging in anti-competitive behavior. Further, an Indian Parliamentary panel has also been set up since there were complaints of political bias, content regulation and data safety over it’s platform, to which Facebook is yet to answer. Hence, it’s not only the recent WhatsApp update that’s worrisome, but Facebook’s history with user’s privacy.
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In June of 2020, Apple released their new privacy labels rules, through which, developers were required to disclose what all kinds of data they were collecting through any app. Not so surprising, WhatsApp and Facebook climbed to top of the list collecting most information, while apps like Signal and iMessage collected least. On top of it, WhatsApp recent decision to give the users one-month ultimatum to either accept their new policy terms or quit the platform has set the alarm bell ringing. Hence, it can be presumed if WhatsApp doesn’t amend their policy update soon, people will be forced to move to other more secured platforms.
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